Effect of active middle ear implant on auditory speech perception in individuals with ear malformation.
Eliane Aparecida Techi Catisquini, Mylena Malavazi Teixeira, Cláudia Daniele Pelanda Zampronio and 4 others
PMID 40172373WHAT IT FOUND
Nine users with ear malformations had better audibility with the implant system: average free-field hearing level improved from 51.7 dBHL pre-surgery to 25.7 dBHL at activation and 23.8 dBHL at three months.
Sentence recognition in silence and noise improved and stayed stable.
Key findings
01In the nine unilateral users, average free-field hearing level improved from 51.7 dBHL pre-surgery to 25.7 dBHL at activation and 23.8 dBHL at three months, with significant gains at most frequencies.
02Sentence recognition in silence improved by 28.5 dBHL at activation and remained similar at one and three months.
03Sentence recognition in noise improved at activation, with median signal-to-noise ratio changing from 3.2 dB pre-surgery to -2.5 dB, and remained stable.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only nine of 15 eligible records were analysed because seven did not attend the three-month reassessment. The study was retrospective and had no comparison group, so change over time cannot be separated from other factors. Follow-up was only to three months, so longer-term benefit and complications are not shown. Device use was self-reported and documented as at least 8 hours per day, not objectively measured. All participants used the same implant model and service protocol, so results may not apply to other devices or settings. The study included only unilateral users, so it does not show what happens with bilateral implantation.
Declared interests
The paper states the prosthesis was acquired through a research project and the surgery was carried out by the hospital's own medical team with no financial support from the manufacturing company.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these improvements as proof that the implant alone works. The study analysed only nine people, seven were excluded, there was no control group, and participants received surgery, an implanted receiver and transducer, an external Amadé Hi sound processor, and individual programming together, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated.